- Investors Bet on a New Year's Rally For eBay
- Why You Should Play the Reflation Trade: Stock Picker
- S&P to Hit 1,200 by Year-End: Chief Investor
- 5 Big Bank Stocks Investors Should Consider: Strategists
- My 2010 Home Price Outlook: UBS Analyst
- Why Are Options Piling into Dollar Tree?
- Markets Can Rise 5-10% in the Near-Term: Strategist
- Buy These 'Competitively Positioned' Stocks: Portfolio Manager
- 5 Stocks That Benefit from Health Care Legislation: Analysts
- 9 Stocks That Play Rising Water Costs: Strategists
MOST SHARED
- The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed
- Wednesday's Economic News Crunch Could Tilt Markets
- Obama Reiterates Commitment to Boost US-India Ties
- NBA D-League On The Rise
- Australia Wheat Exporters Face Challenges: GrainCorp
- Japan Export Rebound Eases Fear of New Recession
- Starbucks Eyes China as Next Major Market
- Stifling Anger at Work Can Kill, Survey Finds
- The Social Media Gaming Threat
- Why You Should Play the Reflation Trade: Stock Picker
- Citi Mortgage Reveals What Treasury Won't
- S&P to Hit 1,200 by Year-End: Chief Investor
- Amended Berkshire Hathaway Filing Indicates No Secret Stock Stakes at End of Q3
- Facebook's Biggest-Ever Holiday Shopping Season
- Facebook's New Dual Class Structure - Slow Steps to an IPO
- 5 Big Bank Stocks Investors Should Consider: Strategists
- Gambling Drunk, Texting to Live And America's On Sale - Your Emails
- Nov. 24: Unusual Volume Leaders
- AIG Board OKs CEO Pay; Benmosche Agrees to Stay
- Half of Banks' Losses May Still Be Hidden: IMF Head
- Deere Reports Quarterly Net Loss, Revenue Falls
- Tiffany Profit Higher Than Expected; Raises Outlook
- Americans Ditch Planes for Trains this Thanksgiving
- Obama Reiterates Commitment to Boost US-India Ties
- FDIC's Bair Cautions on Risks in Bank Break-Up Plan
- Call Me Crazy: Confessions of a Black Friday Shopper
- Turkey Day 101: How Well Do You Know Your Bird?
RSS FEED
CNBC Stock Blog
Text Size 
Bullish options activity has spiked for AK Steel on rumors that it might be taken over by United States Steel.
AKS calls were 153 percent of normal volume, as 12,000 had traded against just 2,400 puts by the last hour of Friday's session, according to OptionMonster's tracking systems. At the same time, U.S. Steel saw 14,000 puts trade at its March 20 strike.
AK Steel has been the subject of other takeover talk in recent months, including December rumors that mentioned Japan's Sumitomo Metals as a possible suitor. But given that arbitrageurs typically get short the buyer and long the object of desire in acquisitions, the X puts and AKS calls make the U.S. Steel buyout rumors all the more interesting.
AK Steel had dipped early this month after Goldman Sachs removed the company from its Conviction Buy List, but since then AKS shares [AKS
Loading...
()
] have been generally trading higher and ended Friday up 5 percent to $9.11. U.S. Steel stock [X
Loading...
()
] had been following roughly the same path but fell 2.95 percent Friday to $30.61.
________________________________
Other Major Steel Makers:
Nucor NUE [NUE
Loading...
()
]
Posco PKX [PKX
Loading...
()
]
Arcelor Mittal [MT
Loading...
()
]
________________________________
Jon 'DRJ' Najarian is a professional investor, CNBC contributor, and cofounder of OptionMonster.com.
________________________________
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes